


Normal Lives? Not That Easy

by purplecake



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Does that even need saying?, F/F, Ghost Laura, I tried okay?, Perry and Laf will make multiple appearances, The Dean too, Werewolf Danny, Will is a dick, Yas, being human AU, lawstein brotp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-09-03 20:06:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8728390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplecake/pseuds/purplecake
Summary: Carmilla Karnstein and Danny Lawrence have an rather strange but strong friendship, considering they are vampire and werewolf, suppose to be mortal enemies. So to help Danny with her transformations and to try and live 'normal' lives, they move in together. But their new house is also the place of haunting for recently deceased Laura Hollis, and she really just wants to be able to talk a lot and eat cookies again. Based on Being Human. (UK or US, doesn't matter really)So a Being Human AU.





	1. Boo?

**Author's Note:**

> Okay okay, I never wrote Carmilla fics but hey, might as well try tight? And I've been watching Being Human lately, and I am trash for some Lawstein brotp always. Anyway. Here ya go. Obviously I don't own either of these shows. 
> 
> Goodbye.

Darkness was something that Danny found comforting, especially at this time of the month. It was better that way, away from innocents that she could hurt or kill. Her eyes watched the silver dish that was the moon, as it glowed in a way some would describe as beautiful. 

To Danny it was just mocking. 

It had happened years ago, and if Carmilla hadn't found her then she would have been dead. When she found out the price she had to pay for her life each month, she'd begged Carmilla to kill her, or just take her back and let the beast finish her off. 

Instead here she was, paying the price once again. She felt it, the twitching. It's how it started, with a flooding warmth, boiling to a scorching pain as her bones went from shifting to snapping, breaking into their new shape. And she screamed, not because it helped, because it didn't, but because she could. No one could hear her, and this one of the only times she could just let it out. All the anger she felt; at her life, at this curse, at what ever beast did this to her. And the moon just shone past the clouds, past the darkness that kept her safe, and laughed. 

And when skin was grown over with fur, and her smooth face had shifted into the rough one of her wolf counterpart, Danny howled instead. 

A whistle echoed across the forest, from above in the branches of one of the tall oaks. The wolf's trained eyes found the swinging legs clad in leather, and the pale face. The lack of heart beat wasn't something new either, but it wasn't what the wolf focused on. No, what had it in a frensie was the hanging piece of raw meat that the vampire shook from the higher branch. 

"You know, Clifford, I honestly cannot believe that you would make me carry this with me every month." Carmilla drawled, but after years of it she wasn't really affected. She just grinned and shook the meat a little more. 

The wolf howled. 

"I think you're getting uglier." She shrugged, hoping up onto a higher branch when the wolf just scraped the bark by her swinging feet. "Maybe you get worse wolf-y features with age?"

Till the moon hid away again, Carmilla just walked around the tree, from branch to branch equipped with sarcastic comments and the meat bag. She always did, every month. She carried a raw piece of meat with her, jumping about from tree to tree, running around the forest, just to keep wolf Danny occupied. It was the easiest way to keep her away from people. For obvious reasons. Carmilla was back on her branch, meat hanging a little to her left, leaning up on the bark with one of her old eighteenth century books open in front of her, eyes following the words lazily. 

Danny stretched out below, groaning and complaining until Carmilla rolled her eyes and tossed down the bag of clothes. "You know, Lawrence, for someone who is such a giant as a human, I'd expect your wolf to be a little bigger." The vampire shrugged, swooping from the branch and landing on all fours like a cat, which was a long story. She dumped the cut of meat into Danny's waiting arms, who only rolled her eyes and joined the vampire's side as they walked from the forest. "I don't think it works like that."

"I am almost four hundred years old. Don't tell me how what works."

"Okay. I'm sorry, grandma." 

"Shut up, Xena."

And although her bones felt funny, and painful when she strained her legs to walk, or moved her head, Danny grinned wide at her friend. "Sure, fang face."

Carmilla didn't miss the little shiver that went through Danny, even out the corner of her eye. She handed her the jacket she'd brought with her, but barely recognised the thanks Danny sent her before moving off with another topic. "I found us a perfect place I think."

Skeptically, Danny watched Carmilla's creepy smile. "Why are you smiling like that? It's not another castle, right?" 

"You'll see."

"Yes, because that response makes me feel so much better."

Ever since she could remember, her life was all hiding between shadows and running from who ever the hell wanted her dead. 

First it was the Vordenbergs, creepy and vengeful, wanting the heart of the monster who destroyed his family. 

Then it was Ell, anger inspired by a fear that dug deep into the worst place imaginable: her heart. Everyone she ever met, trusted, always turned on her. 

Her mother was the last. Carmilla wasn't sure she ever stopped running from her. Because despite all that she was given, the salvation, the gift as her mother would call it, Carmilla couldn't ignore the fact that she was what all those people saw. A monster. That's exactly what her mother had tried to make her. 

If only her mother was alive to see her now. Well, 'Mother'. Friends with a werewolf. But monsters stick together, right? Who else is going to be there for them, if they don't have each other? Despite the fact that she knew the consequences of even a look towards Danny Lawrence and her wolf-y self, she couldn't find it in her to leave again, not when for the first time in centuries she felt like she fit somewhere. Not that she'd ever admit it. She had a brooding, grumpy reputation to up hold. 

"And you think this is perfect why?"

The house wasn't perfect. It was tall rather than wide, with two floors from what Carmilla had seen when creeping about outside, and dark. Really dark, and despite the fact that it looked her age, Carmilla was sure it wasn't. Danny looked down at her from the top floor, raising an eyebrow at the vampire, before nudging the banister with a soft touch of her finger. 

It fell and crumbled to pieces at Carmilla's feet. 

"Okay, so it's not perfect." With a leather boot, Carmilla kicked away the chipped wood next to her, as if the destruction wasn't theirs and barely gave it another glance. "But look at this. You wanted to live a normal life, so this is where it starts." She didn't seem very happy about it, Danny noted. 

"You sure you want to do this?" 

The nod was hesitant. "It's just," She jabbed a hand towards the two gingers standing outside. "Your ginger twins are a bit much and I never really liked humans."

Danny rolled her eyes in response, jumping down from the stairs and towards the door. "Why did I even ask."

The gingers, who Danny found out were called Lola Perry and Lafontaine with a glare towards Carmilla, thanked them one too many times when they asked the price. Perry even went in for a hug but Carmilla turned her away with an icy glare, while Danny was rescued when Lafontaine pulled her back. 

"We know the building isn't in the best shape, and that it doesn't look very inviting," and they each took a turn with a sad look towards the long house. "It's just a woman moved in here the night of her engagement, and died in the night. No ones taken care of it for almost a year, and we were asked to sell it. Her fiance can't even look at it."

"Wait," Danny held out a hand with terrified expression building in her eyes, thought she did try to hide it. Carmilla was stood at her side with her arms lazily wrapped at her chest, lips twisted into an amused grin. "You're telling us that some woman died here?"

Carmilla was still grinning when she said, "We'll take it."

And the place wasn't perfect, but it had its perks. The stairs creaked, and the pipes broke at least once a week, but surprisingly they both felt safe, although Carmilla as the infinitely traveling shadow would never admit it. She sat at the kitchen window mostly, with a new book in her lap every single day, swearing at Danny when she made too much noise. She got paler and paler, until one night she'd leave and come back in the morning with a flushed face and Danny knew she'd eaten. Whether or not it was human blood, Carmilla never told her. 

Apart from the obviously supernatural things, like the fact that Carmilla never ate, or that they had paid extra to get a house with a deep basement, or that they spent even more money on chains and locks, their lives felt rather normal. 

That had been the point after all.

Danny could have laughed at how normal the whole thing was as she stood in the kitchen pouring water into a pan as Carmilla sat at the table behind her, sleeping off what ever she'd spent her night doing. Normal, until a shimmer of silver stabbed through the peace, and Danny screamed. Her hand jerked, sending the cold water and the pan flying over Carmilla. But not even the angry vampire could snap Danny out of her shock. She just stared straight ahead at the girl stood there, smiling at them both from the kitchen door and watching amused as Carmilla glowered at Danny through wet curls of black hair. 

"What the hell, Clifford." 

It was the stranger that spoke first though. "Hello there, and sorry. Don't blame your friend, I still haven't gotten the full handle on this."

Carmilla's dark eyes rounded on the small stranger, and for a second there was silence. Danny could smell the anger that tensed up her vampire friend, and watched still in shock. "And who the hell are you?"

Dark and threatening as they were, the gruff words didn't seem to affect the stranger's happiness. "Oh right," she moved forward, but no noise sounded, and held out her hand. "I'm Laura Hollis."

Neither of them shook the outstretched hand. Carmilla was gone with a wave of wind and back with it in dry clothes, before settling back into her chair, observing the girl who was now looking at her with wide eyes. Danny only frowned rather violently at her friend. 

"Carmilla, why aren't you doing anything?" She motioned vigorously towards Laura Hollis, who kept smiling. "There is a strange girl in our kitchen!"

The vampire watched Danny do her little panic dance. "You want me to kill someone who's already dead then?"

Danny stopped then, eyes widening as she stared at Hollis and then Carmilla. "What?"

Carmilla almost knocked her head into the table. "Danny she's a ghost."

The werewolf blinked. "She's a ghost?"

"She's a ghost."

A finger jabbed at Laura, weak and confused. "You're a ghost?"

Laura Hollis smiled again anyway, nodding her head confidently. "I'm a ghost. And as far as I know, I also can't leave this house. Or touch things, which is a bummer, because I really just want to eat a cookie." 

Carmilla leaned back, letting out a low growl and covering her face with her cold hands. 

"What is this the supernatural club?"

Danny patted her vampire friend on her leather clad shoulder.


	2. The Past Catches Up With Us Eventually

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura needs something from the duo. Laf makes another appearance. Carmilla thinks about her past, but is it still IN the past?

At the mention of the ball, or more specifically her invitation to one, had Mircalla smiling so wide that her cheeks began to hurt from the strain. Her father barely looked at her when she asked his permission, but anything to have his daughter meet a potential suitor was a positive in his eyes. He'd told her she was to go, but only with the intention of finding a rich gentleman, one that would being him profit. It was always a conversation he brought up. When her mother was still alive, she'd manage to keep the topic away from her daughter, but ever since she died Mircalla's father only seemed more and more hellbent to get rid of his daughter. It was no secret that Mircalla looked very much like her mother, and her father could barely face her because of that reason.

Mircalla wouldn't let that ruin her evening. She laughed with her maid as they made the final fixes to her hair and the white dress she'd picked. She was already imagining the tall decorated walls, the wide tables filled with food and drink, the crowds of smiling and dancing people. She gushed about it to her maid, who laughed at the excited jumps and waves of Micarlla's hands. 

And it had been just that. A room so large the music played by the band of men upon a stage echoed around to every side and corner of the wall. Food fancier than Mircalla had seen for a while, not for years. Drinks bubbling in tall glasses. 

A show was being prepared on the stage behind the men and their fast moving fingers over tight strings. Mircalla gazed over them with joyful eyes, watching and listening to the beautiful notes of music she'd never heard but was quickly growing to love. A lady joined her side and began to talk excitedly with her about the up coming show. A tall servant stopped by her with a tray and passed her one of the glasses. It made sense, that with all this surrounding her, Mircalla never noticed the squat man lingering behind her in a crowd of gossiping faces, or the knife that he pulled from his belt under the cover of the shadows. 

It was no secret who she was. Mircalla Von Karnstein. But she never thought she or her father were hated enough to be wanted dead. She'd never found the murderer. She tried, after she'd woken up, but Mother had done it for her, ripped him to pieces. 

 

The glass shattered when she dropped her wine, spilling over the tiled floor as she fell and slipped down next to it with blood pouring from her back, where the knife had slid between her skin. A scream went up, and music seized to play, replaced instead with the sounds of chaos. Mircalla barely felt the pain, a numb feeling sweeping over her. She couldn't feel her legs, or the palms of her hands. Sounds tuned out from around her. Her eyes closed. 

And when they opened again, something was different. There was no beating against her ribs, no warmth in her veins, under her skin. She was still in the same spot, in the ball room, but it was empty and quiet. Blood and wine mixed in a puddle around her. Cold, hungry eyes stared at her from the reflection in the lake of red. Her own eyes. 

"Mircalla?"

 

An angry shout broke through the peace of the house, and Carmilla opened her eyes to see the ghost, Laura, sat at the dinner table and glaring at a can of Coca Cola. The vampire blinked, momentarily blinded by the sunlight breaking through the window as she sat on the carpeted windowsill with one of her leather bound books open in her lap. Laura tried to slam her clenched fists onto the table, but instead of making contact with the wooden surface they went straight through. When that only made her angrier, Carmilla sighed and closed her book. She slid off the sill and planted herself instead in the chair next to the ghost. 

For a long second, as the ghost continued to stare at the tin can of soda, Carmilla watched her and considered. Her fists had returned to sit clenched on the table, and slowly, Carmilla pulled out a hand and placed her own onto the Laura's.

It didn't quite happen how she'd hoped. 

Her cold fingers skimmed over air and landed on the wood underneath. Laura's face shot up surprised and looked at the vampire, who'd shied away as soon as her intended comforting gesture had failed. But Laura smiled at her all the same, thankful for trying, even if the smile was obviously tinted with a deep layer of sadness. 

Shrieking shot through the silence, the door opening on rough hinges. Carmilla heard Danny's yelp when the sound of it erupted over her sensitive ears. 

"Seriously, we have to get this door oiled." There was a pause, shrieking again as Danny closed the door behind her. "Or what ever it is that you do to stop doors from making tortured sounds." 

Her tall frame appeared in the arch of the door still in her hospital uniform, a plastic bag dangling from her hand. She smiled at Carmilla, who gave her a salute in response, and regarded Laura with a look a mix between disturbed and amused as the ghost returned to concentrate on the can, reaching fingers out to touch the metal. When they went straight thought, again, she yelled angrily and in her frustration, puffed away in a sizzling cloud of smoke. She reappeared back again a second later, sitting on the counter behind Danny. 

"I just can't make any progress!" Danny jumped in surprises and dropped the bag, spilling the grocery contents onto the floor of the kitchen. 

"Well puffing angrily around definitely wont help you," Carmilla said dully, but was more focused on laughing as Danny chased a bottle of milk around the kitchen, managing just enough time to flip off her vampire friend. "When I was turned it took me years to gain proper control over my new abilities." Laura huffed disappointingly at that, watching Carmilla curiously, the vampire who'd tried to comfort her seconds ago replaced with the old sarcastic Carmilla. Laura had learnt it happened a lot, as if the vampire would catch herself doing something she wasn't suppose to, like being nice was a bad thing, and went back to her sarcastic self.

 

With a laugh of victory, Danny snatched up the rolling bottle, slamming it down onto the counter. "What Fang Face means, is it's not easy, especially when you died like what, 9 weeks ago?" Laura nodded from where she sulked on the counter. "Precisely. And you've been with us for two of those, only, so give it time." 

"Listen," Carmilla spoke up from where she still sat at the table, her head resting on her hands, "if there is anything we can do to help, just tell us. Unless it is shopping." The vampire muttered, "I don't do shopping," Darkly under her breath and sped away to God knows where. Danny stared at the spot where she'd been, and sighed deeply. When she'd turned to look at Laura, she could see the sight of a small smile breaking through the drooping look on her face as her eyes clouded with a certain look. A look Danny had seen on Carmilla when she'd planned something else for Danny's transformations. A look with a plan. Her shoulders dropped. 

"What exactly are you thinking?" She asked the ghost, who snapped from her mind and smiled again. 

"There is something that you can do for me."

 

"No."

"Carmilla, come on." 

The vampire turned sharply with a glare, and Danny almost rolled her eyes, but contained it. That wouldn't make this better.

"You want the ginger twins here again, especaily when you're days from turning!" 

Danny sighed. Laura was sat back at the table, looking awkwardly between the vampire in the kitchen doorway and the werewolf unpacking groseries at the counter. "Yeah, Carmilla. A couple of days, its not like it's tomorrow, or tonight."

But the vampire wasn't having it, raising and eyebrow. Laura almost smiled, because under all that anger she could see genuine care. "Oh, I'm sorry, let me remind you of two months ago, three days before the full moon when your next door neighboor called me, because you got naked and started howling at the moon at 1 am."

This time Laura did laugh, covering her mouth with a hand when Danny turned, red faced, and glared at the ghost. 

"Okay, that was one time! Besides, we live together now, so you can make sure nothing weird happens!" 

The vampire laughed sarcastically. 

"It's just so that Laura can see her friends." Carmilla didn't stop glaring. "It was you who suggested not even half an hour ago that we would do whatever she asked for." 

This made the vampire look her way. Laura smiled sheepishly at her, and Carmilla almost deflated with defeat. "Fine. But if they get on my nerves, I kill them both."

An alarmed expression crossed Laura's face, but Danny waved it away. "Don't worry, she's kidding." She sounded so monotone, as if Carmilla's death threats were usual. The vampire didn't seem as sure. She raised an eyebrow again. "Oh, I'm kidding am I?" 

Danny responded with a question, looking to Laura instead. "How exactly are we going to get you're friends here?" 

Carmilla scoffed as she slid into the chair opposite Laura, who smiled softly. Carmilla only raised her eyes to her friend and smirked. "So you're telling me that simply calling them up and telling them their dead friend now haunts her old house and won't stop bugging us wanted to see them so they should totally visit, won't work?"

"Laf would probably believe you, honestly." The ghost grinned, looking at air as she thought back. "Perry would just faint." 

"I'd like to avoid that." Danny and Laura started up a conversation, speculation the different non-suspicious ways to get Laura to see her friends. They barely noticed Carmilla slip away from the table and move to the sink, pulling open the counter underneath it to expose the pipes below. Danny and Laura turned sharply at the squeaking of breaking metal. Carmilla stood at the sink with a jagged piece of pipe in her hands, water spewing out from the piece of pipe that was still left, bent and sharp. Laura had never seen Carmilla look so bored, hand holding the pipe at her legs, the other balanced on her hip. "Will this do? Just tell them the sink broke?" 

Danny dropped her head into her hands and groaned.

 

Laura started to hover, the lights flickering when the doorbell went off. Danny ducked, hands over her head, a bulb breaking over their heads. Carmilla laughed at the werewolf. 

"You can do that, but you can't even nudge a can?" Carmilla smirked, kicking away the glass with a boot as Danny went towards the door, unlocking it with a wailing of its rusted hinges. Carmilla could hear Lafontain's voice at the door, and could imagine the scrunched expression on her face as the door closed behind them. "Is that why you called me?" Lafontaine questioned, and Danny laughed as she waved them into the living room. "Unfortunately not." 

The doctor walked through, and Carmilla saw the bulb in the kitchen flicker again. Laura was grinning ear to ear, watching her friend as they came through the door, who looked around the house with cautious eyes. Carmilla lowered her head when Lafontaine turned their back to talk to Danny, and murmered Laura's way. "Calm down, cupcake, or you'll blow the house up." 

But Laura wasn't listening, bouncing away and towards Lafontaine. "They look okay, right?" Neither of them answered the ghost. 

Lafontaine looked up to the ceiling, to where the bulb had been, eyed the glass and then the flickering in the kitchen. "So is that what you called about?" 

Danny shook her head again, leading Lafontaine backwards to the kitchen, pulling open the draws open to reveal the shred of pipe left, a cloth stuffed down the tube to stop the water from gushing out. The doctor's jaw droppped open. Carmilla stiffled a laugh, and Danny apologised over and over until Laf held up a hand and she shut up. "How in the hell did that happen?" 

They babbled out something about too much pressure, and Laf gave them a hard look filled with suspicion. Then-

"You guys are really weird." They smiled. "I like it."

And all Laura did was watch. As Laf observed the torn pipe a little longer. Carmilla watched the ghost for a while, then turned to talk to Lafontaine. "Where's your other half?" 

"Perry's at work. Besides, she finds it hard to come back here." The answer was hesitant, but Laf stuck out their head from under the pipe to respond. There was a look in their eyes, one that said they weren't exactly comfortable here either. 

"We are sorry about forcing you back here." Danny said again, but Laf just shrugged it off as they pulled themselves up and shook off the small flakes of dust from their clothes. 

"Don't worry about it. I miss Laura, and even though this place brings back a bad memory, it also brings back a lot of good ones. That's how I choose to remember her." Silence. Carmilla was sure that the ghost in question was about to cry, if that was possible, and she felt awkward standing there and not even being able to reach out again. "Anyway, I'll get a new pipe for tomorrow and fit it for you guys. Maybe I'll get Perry to tag along." They smiled at both of them, but the blank look Carmilla gave them had their eyes widening. The amazed smile never disappeared. 

"They're barely different." Laura mumbled when Laf had left, sitting and glowing on the couch with her teeth biting nervously at her nails. She was grinning. "Gosh I can't thank you two enough, for getting them here. They were my closest friends, and now that I get to see them happy, it's everything." 

Danny smiled, and even Carmilla had to fight off a smile. Until a spasm of pain curled around her unbeating heart, shooting through the veins that no longer worked. Danny turned immediately, eyes filling with concern as the joy seeped out. She could hear it no doubt, the pain. Which was weird, but then again, werewolves were. Laura must have realised something was wrong too, because she looked back and forth between them with confused eyes. "What's wrong?" 

Carmilla looked towards her, with a hand to her chest, but said nothing. Danny just stared at Carmilla. "When was the last time you ate?" 

A shurg was the answer. Laura could see the argument building in Danny's throat, and so did Carmilla, because she reached towards the couch and pulled on the leather jacket that had hung there. "I'm going now, so don't get your wolf on." 

Some sort of understanding passed between the vampire and the werewolf, a nod and a long stare, and the Carmilla was gone in a flash of black.

Danny shrugged off the worry that had settled heavily on her shoulders, and turned to smile at Laura. "So, how's you're ghostly powers coming along." 

 

There was a shadow behind her. She could sense, smell the death shrouding them, this figure. Suffering. A smell she very well recognised so similar to her own. Carmilla turned a sharp corner to the side, pressing her back to the wall of the alleyway, and waited. The figure walked by the entrance, before stopping and beginning to turn the same way she'd went. Her cold fingers shot out and wrapped hard around the slim neck, pulling back and slamming his back hard against the bricks of the alley wall. He wheezed heavily, wriggling in her grip like the weasel he was, but as soon as he saw the look on her face, the cold glare and scowl he'd seen so much before, he burst into laughter. 

"Damn, sis." He reached out to pull away her arm, but she just snapped his wrist with her other free hand. His sudden wailing turned into laughter quickly, the joint snapping back into place. "A lot weaker than you used to be."

"What the hell do you want from me?" She hissed viciously at her brother, her little brother, who used to look up to her and now only wanted to see her blood run red along the streets. The same as Mother. 

William grinned that smug way that Carmilla had always hated. It made her feel sick. He looked just like her, cruel and cold. "Mother has requested you return to her." 

If there had been blood still warm in Carmilla's veins, it would have ran cold at that moment with fear.


	3. Immortality comes with a price

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny's date causes problems. Carmilla faces a demon from her past. A fight occurs.
> 
> Angst? Maybe?

Will dropped heavily to the concrete, breathing in and out sharply as he clutched at his throat. Carmilla rolled her eyes at him, sneering "Don't be so dramatic, you're an immortal vampire," before nudging his sharply with her foot. It wasn't a kick, she told herself, but the wince from Will as he got up said otherwise. Still, he smirked her way.

"You lost your fire, Kitty." The nickname erupted a flash of anger in Carmilla, but she fought off the urge to knock him into the wall again and glared his way instead. "Seems the friendship with a filthy mutt made you go soft." 

At the mention of Danny, Carmilla sneered at him and raised a fist, hitting him square in the jaw. Will laughed. 

"You're gonna regret that, Kitty." 

"Call my friend a filthy mutt again and you wont have a jaw to speak with, you bastard." 

Will was quick enough to hide it, but Carmilla had spent decades with him and saw the split of pain in his eyes briefly as she growled at him, before he was grinning smugly again. He raised his arms, a mocking surrender. 

"Not here to start trouble, sis." Hands dropped and he linked his fingers together. A sign of nervousness in Will, despite the smirk marking his face. "Mother wants to talk to you."

"So you've said." She murmured, trying to hide the trembling in her hands from even the mention of her Mother. "What does she want?" 

"That's for you to find out, when you see her." 

Carmilla managed a smug smirk of her own, at which Will scowled. "So you don't know."

"I know enough." He growled her way from the dark of the alley. "See you then, Kitty." And he was gone with a change in the wind, and Carmilla was stood alone in the dark again, with crumbled dust on the concrete and a dented wall where Will's back had crashed and crushed it. 

He hadn't told her where to meet, but Carmilla didn't need him to. She would never forget. With a resigned sigh, she ran home. 

 

Laura was pacing in jumps along the kitchen when Carmilla got back, Danny watching her with half closed eyes. "Listen, ghost girl-"

"Laura."

"Laura. Listen, would you stop pacing? You're giving me a headache." 

"My friends are grieving and I don't have a way to show myself, not even move a can, and Carmilla's gone god knows where for the past seven hours-" 

She hadn't even realised it had been that long. She took a second to lean silently on the arch that led into the kitchen and watch as the ghost rambled. 

"Carmilla's fine, she does this all the time." But there was doubt in Danny's voice too. 

She decided it was time to spare them the misery. "Relax, I'm here."

Laura puffed the two feet towards her and went to wrap Carmilla in a hug, but paused with her arms out when she realised what had happened the last time they tried to touch. So she pulled her arms in and grinned instead. "Good, you're okay."

"Didn't realised you cared so much, cupcake." Carmilla didn't now ghosts could blush, especially as hard. 

Danny nodded Carmilla's way, a silent question of, "Everything alright?" which was normally answered with a yes, or an indifferent grunt. This time, Carmilla's dark eyes showed a panic Danny hadn't seen in years. 

"I'm okay," the vampire spoke aloud, but her eyes stayed panicked, and Danny came to realise that Carmilla was keeping it positive just for the ghost. "We have other things to worry about, like your transformation." 

The full moon was tomorrow, and Danny could no longer deny the pain in her joints as her skeleton ready to reform. "Do you have the meat?" 

"Actually," the vampire started, "I have a better place this time." Danny stared at her puzzled. "This place has a basement, so I cleared it out a little, padlocked the door. You should be fine to change there." 

"Thank god I cancelled my date." 

"You had a date?"

"Fangs, I do not appreciate the sarcasm in you're tone." 

Laura watched them from the door to the kitchen with a hand on her mouth to stiffle the laughter. 

"Sorry Clifford, didn't realise you were my mother."

The ghost let out a stifled giggle, and both friends turned to stare at her red face as she burst into laughter.

 

Danny sat in the basement the next evening, with the sun just disappearing behind the horizon, legs crossed and eyes closed, trying to ignore the pain as her bones buzzed. Laura watched her quietly, from the door. her feet made no sound when she shuffled along the concrete of the basement and sat down next to the werewolf. When Danny opened her eyes, she almost jumped out of her skin in shock, but said nothing else about it. 

"You okay, Xena?" Carmilla slipped into the door. 

"In pain, anxious that I might kill someone." It was matter of fact, but Carmilla and Danny had been through enough of full moons to know that Danny was truly terrified. 

"I spread the scent of meat in the room, so it should distract you for the night. If you get any funny ideas, I'll be outside the door ready to kick your wolfy ass." 

Danny managed a small smile at that. 

Until the doorbell rang. 

Danny's heart jumped, eyes wide as she watched the surprise spread on both Carmilla's and Laura's faces. 

"Stay here, both of you." And with a blink of the eye, Carmilla was gone, and her footsteps could be heard on the wooden floors above them. The door slid open with its usual creak. 

"Who are you?"

A tall man stood on the opposite side of the door, smiling like a goof with a bag of take out and a bunch of roses in his hands. He reminded Carmilla of a giant puppy, and immediately she rolled her eyes. She didn't need another one to deal with. 

"Wilson. Kirsch. Danny's friend. She said she couldn't make it out tonight for dinner, so I brought her some food instead." He stared at Carmilla for a few long seconds. "You're the short and scary roommate right? Carmilla?" 

Under the floor, Danny face palmed at Kirsch's blabbering. Carmilla was going to kill her. 

"Well she's busy unfortunately. So go away." 

And then Danny felt the bones in her left arm snap, and her scream carried through the house. Laura jumped back as Danny curled away from her and covered her arm with her body. A snap sounded again, and Danny arched her back and howled. 

Carmilla and Kirsch both heard the scream, and the puppy stopped smiling immediately, almost dropping the flowers and bag of food. Carmilla sighed, already regretting the decision in which she had no choice, and let go of the door. Kirsch barrelled through as Carmilla knocked him back with a swing of the arm. 

"Laura!" Carmilla yelled down to the ghost as she held Kirsch down. "You have to close the door!" 

Laura stared at the open entrance with wide eyes. "I can hardly move a can!" 

Kirsch tried to swat at her hesitantly as she pressed him to the floor. "I don't want to hurt you beefcake," and then yelled back down to Laura. "Just, believe or some shit, do it now or people will die!" 

Laura tried hard, blinking and forcing her mind to block out Danny's screams. Her hands found the door, but passed as she tried to touch the metal. Carmilla struggled to hit Kirsch without damaging him, and Danny's bones kept cracking. And with all of that, Laura slammed her hands towards the door. 

They connected with the cool metal, and pushed, just as Carmilla smashed Kirsch in the temple, knocking him out cold.

Downstairs in the basement, Danny's wolf scratched and barrelled at the door. Laura sat with her back to the metal, staring at her hands. When Carmilla slipped down next to her, Laura turned and grinned at her. 

"I did it." 

"Yeah, you did it, cupcake." 

"Laura."

"Cupcake."

 

Carmilla stared deep into Kirsch's eyes as he blinked them open the next morning, groaning as he pressed a hand to his forehead. He jumped in panic, seeing Carmilla and Danny behind her who stared at him with concern. All that was forgotten when Carmilla clicked her slender fingers in front of his face. He slacked, face falling into expressionless, almost bored. 

Laura stared too, in as much wonder as Danny looked on with concern, as Carmilla began to speak. 

"You never came to find Danny. When she cancelled on your date, you accepted that it was for good reason and went to bed. The bruise on your temple is from where you fell and hit your head during the night."

And then, still expressionless, Kirsch was walking out of the house and down the road to his car. They watched him drive away through the kitchen window. 

"Carmilla, I'm sorry." 

"Next time you have a date lined up, make sure he's not such a hopeless romantic."

Danny laughed at that. "Sure. Those are the worst."

Carmilla shifted away from the window, running her fingers on the cover of one of the books she'd left there. "Now that your useless puppy has been dealt with, I have a demon I have to face." 

She disappeared within seconds of finishing her sentence. 

 

Her Mother was just as stiff and cold as she'd remembered. Not a single change in almost fifty years, not even the unblinking glare that she greeted Carmilla with. The smile though, something Carmilla had never seen on her Mother before, made Carmilla cold and sick at the stomach. 

Something was wrong.

Will was nowhere to be seen, but for that Carmilla was glad. The smug little weasel and his grin made her want to hit him again, and of that Mother would never approve. 

There was a long silence before The Dean spoke up from her high seat at the end of the smooth marble table. The museum where they lived, long abandoned by humans, fitted her perfectly, red walls dimmed by age, yet even the shattered glass display cases looked matching to her threatening desk. 

"I brought you here, Mircalla," she smiled wider at the wince Carmilla failed to hide at her old name, "because I want you back at my side."

Carmilla held back a scoff in her fear of being ripped to shreds. "You know well why I left in the first place. Even if I wanted to come back, the elders wouldn't let me."

"You kept some bad company, that's true, but I dealt with it then, and I will deal with it now. As soon as the elders see that mutt that you call a friend dead, they will accept you back, just like the last time." 

 

A still body in her arms, warmth seeping from it just as the blood from her throat. "Elle!" 

 

Carmilla felt rage settle in her chest. "You won't get anywhere near Danny. I won't make the same mistake twice." 

The Dean rose from her chair. Her heels clicked against the stone floors. She towered over Carmilla, fingers cold and just as rough as icicles stabbing at her cheeks. "Oh darling." Her voice washed over Carmilla like a venom. "You already have."

And suddenly, Will's absence made sense. 

Carmilla pulled away from her Mother and rushed from the old Museum.

The door was in shards across the lawn and on the steps. 

Laura was yelling the most colourful vocabulary Carmilla had ever heard. Will had Danny by the throat as the ghost tried to bash her fists against his back. They made contact, but Will ignored her, his grip on Danny's neck tightening. 

Carmilla wasted no time, rushing her brother, grabbing him and throwing him away from Danny as she collapsed and gasped for breath. 

"Oh, great. I was hoping you'd come, Kitty." They circled each other, eyes searching for threatening movements. Will lifted an arm to hit her, but Carmilla knocked it away swiftly and kicked him into the stair case. Every move he tried, she'd taught him. Every trick he tried to pull, she knew back to front. 

In the end, it was quicker than she'd expected. Will ripped away part of the banister, leaving him with a sharp ended weapon. He jabbed at her, but she ducked away and swerved under his arm, breaking it with a quick tug. He yelled, and she used the moment of distraction to grab the sharp wood and turn it on him instead. She struck him hard at the back of the knees, sending him falling with a grunt. Yet still, he went for an attack, sending her toppling backwards as he loomed over her. He raised a foot above her face, boot ready to stomp. 

And then the sharp end of the wood cut through his shirt, piercing him straight through the chest and coming back out, drowning in blood through his back. Carmilla breathed out quickly, watching Will, her brother, chock and fall to the side. 

He was spluttering blood by the time she rolled over and pulled him into her lap. Tears stung her eyes for the first time in centuries, staring into his terrified eyes. Immortality comes with a price, she'd told him. 

'I'm sorry,' his eyes seemed to say, before they blanked and he stopped moving.

"Carmilla." Danny knelt down next to her, reaching for her shoulder. The bruises around her neck where already healing. 

Before her hand reached her, Carmilla shuffled out of the way. 

 

"Kitty, come on, give me a challenge," he'd laughed as she lazily ducked under another one of his punches. 

 

Carmilla didn't look back, only down at Will, reaching down to close his eyes. And with a flash she was gone, Will's body with her, leaving behind only the broken door and a stain of blood.


	4. The Future Plans For Your Demise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carmilla revisits the Dean with a little promise, Laura learns some things and a mysterious guests arrives to rock the world.  
> A few flashbacks happening, so there. 
> 
> QUICK WARNING, kinda gory at the begining so be warned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so here is a chapter. It has been months, so sorry. I got stuck with the story, besides exam stress is here, so this chapter I kinda wrote to get a break. But here it is, hopefully it is good, but I'm not sure. But here it is!!
> 
> Hope you enjoy this!

Mircalla shook with an anxiety, nerves, excitement as she unlatched the gate and crept along the path to the small house between the towering trees. She saw the curtain move, and smiled at the thought of her waiting in the same anticipation for her. 

The door opened with it's usual creak, her foot hitting the same loose floorboard. But the smell made her tense. The normal scent of wood and flowers, Elle's smell, was mixed with the vivid smell of metallic, and sweet. Sour apples and blood. Mircalla's muscles tensed, her hands rising to defend herself. If there was blood in her veins, it would have frozen in her fear. As she carried on into the house, both unfamiliar smells came stronger, and when she pushed the door to the dining room open, a scream rose from her throat at the revelation. 

Because there, on the smooth wooden table, lay Elle. Blood dripped from the edge, sinking deep into the carpet lining the floors, dying it dark and disgusting. Her lover's eyes were staring and open, up at the chandelier. 

With tears at her eyes, blurring her image of the scene, Mircalla rushed forward, and in a flash had Elle in her arms, away from the blood, staring into her dead eyes. Her skin was flooding with cold, the warmth of life dripping away like the blood was from her throat, and Mircalla watched in shock. 

"Elle!" 

She shook her desperately, grasped her shoulders, felt at her throat for a pulse, any sign of life still left. Tears fell over her cheeks now, landing along Elle's blood stained face and throat, leaving tracks in the thick layers of blood. 

"Please Mircalla, don't embarrass yourself any further," a voice mocked behind her, but Mircalla only reached down towards Elle, gently touching the cold skin of her cheeks. 

"You killed her," was the only thing she said, a broken voice, barely a whisper. The Dean laughed coldly from the chair she'd seated herself in, legs unfolding as she stood up smugly, smiling down at Mircalla. 

She placed a hand towards her still heart, a fake look of surprise over her stiff features. "Oh but darling, I didn't kill her!" 

That's when Mircalla looked up to an opening door to see her brother, stained with guilt, with blood, with regret, but still stood and staring at her with a blank expression as he watched her suffer. Mircalla remembered that look in her own eyes too. A knife gleamed in Will's hands, his fingers splattered with red, dark blood stuck under his fingernails same as the sliver blade, glaring in the candlelight. 

"How could you do this?" She mumbled, and as the Dean laughed, Will was the one to answer her. His answer was monotone, and his eyes pleaded for forgiveness, but Mircalla watched Elle's still face, when it had been so happy only hours ago. 

"These mutts are scum, and the sooner you learn that they are abominations, the better it will be for you."

Mircalla broke. Her eyes leaked tears, and she buried her face into Elle's hair. Wishing they could go back, to laughing and talk, to hiding and running. "I love her." 

The Dean spoke this time, her facade dropping, a sneer taking over as she crouched next to a shaking Mircalla and hissed with clenched teeth, "I thought you would learn something from your sister's mistake." Her eyes narrowed, sharp nails wrenching Carmilla's hands from Elle, pulling her up harshly as she too stood. "Turns out I was wrong."

 

Carmilla replayed that night in her mind as she stood once again before her mother, the Dean, looking over Carmilla's rigid frame and her shaking hands, the blood on them she already recognised as Will's before she even looked at the body under the sheet on the museum floor at Carmilla's feet. 

"So you would kill your own brother for some werewolf?" She spat the word like a plague, but Carmilla was done being afraid. Manipulated. 

She looked up, blank and empty at the Dean's cold face. "He wasn't my brother anymore. You made sure of that." 

The Dean's brief surprise, gone in seconds but there long enough for Carmilla to be proud, showed how unused to being questioned she was. But Carmilla didn't stop there. 

"What you've been doing to us, to species all over, to humans, stops." The Dean watched her smugly now, and for a second she was reminded of Will. She shook his face from her mind quickly. "I will put a stop to this sick, murderous reign of yours."

"Now, now Mircalla, that sounds oddly like you're implying-"

"My name," she hissed is response, taking a stop closer to the Dean, "Is Carmilla." Her eyes grew determined, cold, angry, and she took another step. The Dean did nothing to show her reaction, but the shift in her seat, rearranging her legs, was enough. "And I'm not implying anything. I'm telling you, I will kill you."

And with that being her last words, she spun and walked away, only letting herself have a final look towards Will's covered body. That made her stop. She knelt next to him, uncovering his face. It was calm, rested from the scowl that she'd seen for the past decades. She could almost imagine the smile she'd first seen him with, the innocence of him. She ran her fingers through his black hair, kissed the top of his head, and covered his face again. She didn't dare to look at the Dean again, and the Dean didn't bother stopping her. 

 

Living with a ghost was proving to be the worst thing. The house was shaking, their last bulb shattering into glass shards. Danny's bruises had vanished from around her throat two days before, the morning after Carmilla had disappeared with her brother's body in her arms. 

Laura wouldn't stop worrying, or asking questions. They ranged from vague ones, like "What the hell!" accompanied by a smashing bulb and a spark of electricity, or more detailed, as to why Danny had been attacked. Danny tried to answer them as best she could, but with Carmilla gone she couldn't focus much. The house was still in ruins, the arch where the door had been taped up, the couch slanted in the living room without one of its legs. A blanket was spread out for Danny in the living room on the dusted floor, since the wooden stairs to the second floor had been wrecked, the banister shattered. Danny had tried to clean up the mess, but with Laura's anxious puffing in and out around the house, she no longer saw the point. 

"Danny!" 

"Laura!" The werewolf responded, barely looking up from where she was sat at the window, looking out towards the street. The vampire wasn't anywhere to be seen. Fear gnawed at her insides, replaying the empty look in her friend's eyes as she looked down at her dead brother. As she pulled away from Danny's reaching hand. 

"Tell me about this Dean?" It wasn't a demand. Laura's voice was soft, and when Danny turned to look at her, the ghost had sat on the kitchen counter waiting with a patient smile. 

"Not much to tell, other than she's a bitch." 

"But we need to find Carmilla. And that vampire probably came from her, right?" 

Danny huffed, the only time seeing the Dean branded into her mind. "Her brother." Laura watched her in confusion. "That vampire, Will, was Carmilla's brother." She didn't turn to look to see the shock on Laura's face. "The Dean is her mother, not biologically. She made her a vampire." 

"The Dean is know for her hatred of anyone or anything that isn't a vampire. Carmilla got away from her, centuries ago when the Dean killed someone she loved. A werewolf she fell in love with. She's know for her manipulation, inciting fear into her followers. Twisting their minds so they see the power and not humanity, lives. Just control. Just the power. I had the pleasure of facing her once, barely got away with my life. The same night I was bitten. That's when Carmilla found me."

 

The cold seeped into her bones, the snow at her back soaking her shirt through with spikes of it. She barely felt it still, whether it was blood or ice that made her shirt damp and cold, she could tell. Hands pressed where the blood pumped from the wound at her side, but her fingertips were already going numb. The sky was open around her, filled to the brim with stars, and a full moon round and heavy. 

The bite burned. 

Danny tried her best to pull herself up, to see the tall figure that had knocked her down, snapped at her legs with a long silver knife, but her vision blured with the pain, and she closed her eyes to control the flashing lights. The glow of the stars got dimmer by the second. 

A crunch sounded to her left, followed by a thud of a heavy weight and a cry of pain. Then silence. 

A pale, grinning face appeared above her. Her cheeks were tickled by dark locks. Danny's eyes went to close, but a sharp slap to her face brought her back out almost immediately, blinking in shock towards the stranger. 

"Not yet, doggy. You only just started this dog life of yours." The strange woman grinned again. "Got lots of dog food you gotta try." 

Danny felt the snow peel from her back, her body straining as her wounds stretched, crying out in pain as she was lifted up by the shoulders. The stranger was even colder than the snow. "See you around, Will," said the voice, and then she was off, Danny drifting off finally to the whipping of the wind at her hair. 

 

"The Dean, has no one ever tried to stop her?" Laura had moved closer, sat now in one of the dining room chairs. 

"They've tried, sure, but never lived long enough to tell anyone about it." Danny's mind went straight to Carmilla's tall sister, the mysterious vampire. She didn't bring her up. 

"Maybe it's time some one did live long enough to tell it then." 

Danny was up the second she heard the voice, head snapping to the kitchen door where Carmilla Karnstein lent against the arch. Her eyes were drooping with exhaustion, her hands still red with her brother's blood. Danny could smell the anger, the determination on her, watched as she lent there in her weakness. Laura and Danny made eye contact. 

The light's flickered again. 

"Carmilla?" 

The vampire moved her head, looking towards them both. "That's my name."

Danny approached her friend, slowly, standing for a second in front of her, watching the lack of movement as she stared over their shoulders out the window. "I'm so sorry, fangs."And then she had her arms wrapped around Carmilla, pulling her in and engulfing her with warmth. The vampire shook for a second, maybe trying to push her away, maybe crying, but Danny didn't let go, not until Carmilla wrapped her own arms around the werewolf. 

"He wasn't my brother anymore. He was gone long before that."

The vampire caught Laura's anxious eyes over Danny's shoulder, and smiled. The shocked expression on Laura's face was worth it. The ghost was gone then, in a cloud, and appearing again next to both women. Danny shuffled back, and Laura wasted no time throwing her arms around Carmilla aswell. Carmilla braced herself for the awkward lack of contact and the apologising, but cold hands hugged her around her shoulder blades, and Laura pressed her tightly to herself. 

"I'm glad you're okay." 

The vampire smiled again. 

"Well isn't this touching." An unfamiliar voice rang thought the house. Unfamiliar for Laura that is. Danny and Carmilla shared a long, shocked look, neither daring to turn around just yet, their backs to the intruder. 

"Mircalla, or is it Carmilla now, please look at your dear sister."

Laura felt a crippling shock for the third time that day, mouth open wide with it as Carmilla turned from the ghost to face the intruder.

Matska Belmonde stood in their ruined home with the same grace and poise Carmilla had remembered, with red lipstick thick at her lips, twisted into a soft smile, and a dress covering her heeled feet. Her hands were placed one over the other. Carmilla felt faint. The stress of Will, of her mother, of feeling like an undead woman once again dead, Carmilla felt her knees weaken as she watched her sister walk towards her. 

"Mattie?" She whispered, and she felt tricked. Tricked by her mind, or maybe her mother. Maybe this was revenge for Will, or maybe this was just a dream. But then Mattie's hands were smooth on her face, her smile bright. 

"I heard you plan on taking down mother, my dear."

"I think I can help."


	5. You Decide What Your Ending Will Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end arrives. 'Mattie' helps out the gang, drops a few truth bombs. Carmilla faces her mother with a surprising appearance from a figure of the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO! Finally I updated. Don't know why it took so long, but finally here I am with the ending. Thank you all for reading, and hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think!

Carmilla sat at the table, across from a perfectly poised Mattie who watched the werewolf by the counter poor warm blood into two cups, then a cup of coffee for herself. When the mugs were settled on the surface before both vampires, Danny slipped into a chair herself, intertwining her fingers together around her mug, looking into the dull brown liquid inside in thought. Laura was swinging her legs back and forth as she sat watching the three of them from the window sill.

"How are you alive?," Carmilla spoke first, her voice rough and stuttering, still unbelieving that her sister, dead for almost 200 years now, was sat infront of her.

Mattie took a long sip of her drink. Her long nails tapped at the glass.

"I'm not alive. Although I didn't die at the time you saw."

Carmilla sat forward. Laura, who'd been sat on the kitchen counter by the tables watching, jumped to her feet, seeing the tension building in the vampire's shoulders. Danny glanced at her friend, wary in her seat.

"I watched it happen."

For the first time since she'd died, Carmilla watched as tears built and collected in her eyes. Her hands shook, clenching around the mug to stop the twitching. Carmilla's face scrunched in confusion, watching her sister with worry in her eyes.

"You saw what Mother wanted you to see." She took a long sip of blood. "She did something much worse than killing me. " Her sad, old eyes found her sisters. "And I think you know exactly what she did. After all, she did the same to you, a century later." She smiled. Carmilla, for the first time since Elle, since Mattie, fought a sob down.

Danny frowned, confused. "Fangs, what does she mean?" Her hand found Carmilla's leather clad arm. Laura moved closer, reach down for contact, her ghostly touch bringing the cold vampire comfort.

"The coffin." Mattie nodded her head, and out of the corner of her eye Carmilla saw Danny slump with the weight of the news. She frowned with worry, and her grip on Carmilla's shoulder tightened.

The ghost scrunched her face with confusion. "What coffin?"

Carmilla turned to face Laura, her face softening at the worry crushing her face. "My mother, as punishment after a certain event that happened, locked me up in a coffin full of blood." The vampire turned back to her sister, mostly to miss the horror on the ghost's face. "The same thing happened to Mattie a century earlier."

Her sister, she noticed, was looking hard and heavily at the ghost on the kitchen counter. Carmilla frowned, but didn't get the chance to ask what the problem was before Matska was speaking again.

"The difference was that you escaped, thanks to the bombs of world war two. I died."

That set of news sent a chill through the house, and Carmilla would have paled, if there was any pumping through her veins. "So how are you here?" Even when muttering the question, Carmilla watched suspiciously with the suspected answer in mind.

"Technically I'm not here as Mattie. I'm here as Ereshkigal."

"Goddess of the land of the dead." Carmilla murmured, looking at her with wide eyes. "Why are you here then?"

Mattie, or not Mattie, laughed fully. "Mother plans to open the doors to the underworld. We can't let that happen."

When silence followed, Mattie raised one eyebrow and continued with a sigh, "If she does that, she will take over what is mine, and kill all species beside vampire. I don't like that."

Carmilla almost rolled her eyes, because of course her mother would plan to steal the underworld from her sister and make vampires the surperior and only race. Surprisingly, while she was thinking of her mother's strategy, it was Laura who spoke up. Danny almost rose up to shush the ghost, before realising she'd go straight through her, giving up and shuffling in her seat.

"How do you propose we stop her then?"

When her sister's eyes found Laura again, a strange smile accompanied it. Carmilla felt uncomfortable immediately. It is the smile of someone who knows about something that you don't. Smug and dangerous.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Laura Hollis."

Laura was visibly shocked by the recognition. She blinked once, then again, opened her mouth and gaped like a fish for a second before she got out, "How do you know me?"

The goddess in Mattie's body laughed loudly again, head back. She even clapped, before she composed herself again. "Ereshkigal knows all the dead, little girl. But you, you were one of the few that are interesting. Killed by the dean herself."

The ghost froze, mouth opening but no sound coming out. Danny's head snapped from Laura to Mattie. Carmilla's eyes fell on her sister in a curious glare.

"Mother killed her? Why?"

Mattie got up from her chair, eyes looking over the house, finger dragging over the surface of the kitchen table gathering dust. "Each seal of the gates of the underworld require a sacrifice. To me." She looked uncomfortable for a quick second, before she righted herself and laughed. "Not that I enjoy it one bit. I mean, I do love fresh lives, but not ones given to me by that god awful woman as part of her stupid ploy." Her eyes found Laura's, and she smiled, surprisingly genuinely. "I am truly sorry, child."

Carmilla almost cringed at the power that sounded through Mattie's voice. Her sister had been powerful before, intimidating and graceful, but seeing her as the vessel for Ereshkigal was a whole different level of power.

"I'll strike you a deal," Mattie's voice brought their attention back to her. She'd sat down again, back straight and smirk back on her face. "You take down the Dean, and I will return the lives of those that have been sacrificed to me."

"Including young Laura's."

The ghost perked up, Danny turned to look at her. Carmilla felt hope tear at her, but the suspicion was stronger. "How do we defeat her?"

"The sword of Hastur."

Carmilla sat up, arms resting on the table heavily. "The sword no supernatural creature can pick up."

Mattie laughed. "You can pick it up, darling. It just hurts." Carmilla raised an eyebrow at her sister, unimpressed.

Carmilla sighed, shared a look with Danny. "She'll destroy the world."

A black cloud began to surround Mattie's smiling form. "She'll do a lot worse than that, sis."

And then she was gone, the chair in which she'd sat empty, as if she'd never been there at all.

  
The search for the sword took up the majority of their time. All night, Carmilla had spent in a nearby library, searching mythology books for any mentions of the thing. In the end, it was Lafontaine who ended the search.

They nearly fainted when Danny finished explaining everything to them, then clapped their hands together in excitement and picked up their phone. "Jeep, you need to get to Laura's old house quick, we got some shit to do." Carmilla slapped her palm against her forehead as Laura laughed.

Jeep, or JP Armitage, turned out to be an expert in old mythology, and an expert computer programmer at that. He looked very much similar to Will, but Carmilla shook that familiarity off to focus.

They were running out of time, and the sword was something that they needed. Carmilla was sat on the window sill in the kitchen the next morning, eyes staring ahead into the rising sun. "All of this will be destroyed if I don't do something."

Danny laughed softly, coming to stand next to her, leaning on the wall by the window. "Never thought you would say something so dramatic, fang face." A smirk found its way onto Carmilla's face, but she swore at the werewolf as she stood, after one final look outside.

"Get to Mel," Danny froze up, ready to argue with anger building. Carmilla held up a hand with a glare, "tell her to gather the hunters or the Dean will end humanity. That will get her going."

When Danny didn't move, her expression never changing, Carmilla sighed tiredly. "We need her."

"Out of all the people, I never expected you to say that fangs."

Carmilla ran a hand over her face. "I didn't expect to ever say that myself."

"I will meet you there, tonight."

Danny didn't get to ask where she was going, until Carmilla was gone.

Lafontaine stayed in the house for a while after Carmilla had left, sitting with JP and discussing some crazy science project. Laura sat on the counter of the kitchen next to them and smiled as she listened. And when JP left, she just sat and watched her friend. Watch the excitement in their eyes. Danny walked into the kitchen, opening the fridge and grabbing a drink before she noticed Laura.

"Is she here?" Lafontaine didn't look up when they asked, just twiddled their thumbs as they started down at the chipped wood of the kitchen table. Danny paused, swallowed her drink hard.

"Carmilla? No, she's -"

"Laura." Lafontaine coughed into their hand, finally looking up to the werewolf. "Is Laura still in this house?"

Laura held her hand up when Danny opened her mouth to answer. Slowly she came towards the table, picked up the pen and paper Laf had been using to draw plans with JP, and began to write. Lafontaine felt tears prick their eyes as the words were scribbled in the handwriting that she knew so well.

_Yes, Laf. I'm here._

"God damn you Hollis." Laf wiped the tears from her eyes. "Danny told me what the death goddess said." She looked up to her left, and Laura smiled as she watched her best friend's eyes search the air where she stood. "Maybe after you defeat this vampire, she can give you back your life."

There was a long silence, where Laura laughed and Danny followed, and Laf didn't need to ask because she knew, her friend was giggling. "I mean the bitch did take it to piss off a goddess."

Danny and Laura shared a look, and the werewolf noticed hope shining there.

  
Getting the sword was the challenge. It was buried underwater, lodged in the face of a rock wall.

It burned her skin when she touched it, and Carmilla's palm came away red and burning when she tossed it down onto the kitchen table. The house was empty. Danny and Laura had gone to the lair, as Carmilla had told them, to hold off her mother until she could get there. Hopefully Mel had listened for once, and gone with them. Either way she had to hurry. A couple of hunters, a werewolf and a ghost, although an impressive army, wasn't big enough to hold of that many vampires.

"I am so proud of you, sis." Carmilla yelled in pain when she grabbed the sword out of reflex and swung around on guard with it at the ready. It dropped from her hand to the floor, palm and fingers pulsing with pain, when she noticed it was Mattie, still dressed in the same clothes. There was a darkness shrouding her now, and Carmilla wondered if it was there before, and she was just to shocked at seeing her sister alive to notice it.

"Ereshkigal promised the lives of those sacrificed back, when the Dean is dead. Will be something quite confused for the humans, but its about time they had a little bit of a good surprise."

"Why are you doing this?" Carmilla questioned, ignoring the hope making her chest warm at the thought of Laura, human again, living. Being able to see her friends, be happy, eat cookies.

"As much as I love when I get new souls in the underworld, I don't feel content when they are part of a ploy from a woman trying to take over my kingdom." She smirked, waving her hand up in the air. "Call me selfish."

There was a long silence. Then, "You know what you need to do?" The goddess questioned, and Carmilla nodded after another pressing quiet. The house creaked around them.

"Even though you are the vessel for a goddess of death now Mattie, it was really good to see you."

"You know what that sword will do to you, Carmilla." If it was even possible, Carmilla grew cold at the thought.

"I know what it could do to me." Even being near the sword, Carmilla could feel it draining her life, or what was left of it. "I'm hoping I can get to mother quickly enough that it won't get the chance to finish it's damned job."

Her sister gave her a sad look, but smiled still. "I wish you luck, then, Mircalla."

They didn't hug, not now that Carmilla knew it wasn't only her sister in front of her. But Carmilla gave her a rare smile, and Mattie didn't miss the tears that had begun to form in her eyes.

The battle was in full force when Carmilla finally got there. Danny was in her large wolf form, but her eyes were her own colour, and when she noticed Carmilla from across the museum hall, the one her mother had claimed as her own for centuries, her eyes showed relief. Carmilla nodded her way.

Laura was puffing around the museum hall throwing punches and kicks at the vampires.

_"Krav maga," the ghost told her, as they sat and Laura laughed at her own stupid childhood stories. "I'm quite good actually."_

_"I'm sure you are, cupcake," Carmilla had said, and Laura had blushed._

Her eyes caught sight of Carmilla, but she had no time to get closer or say anything before another vampire was rushing her. Mel and the hunters were all over the museum hall, taking cover behind broken display cases as they notched another arrow into their bow, taking down another rushing vampire. Mel herself was brandishing a stake, knocking vampires on their asses when they tried to get too close to Danny to swarm her.

The Dean, her mother, the monster that haunted her life for centuries, was stood surrounded by a semi circle of vampires, in front of a large and old door. Judging from the orange glow coming for around her, she had gotten messed up in some shady shit.

The vampires surrounding her rushed Carmilla as soon as they caught sight of her approaching. The sword of Hastur was in a sheath over her back, but she didn't need it, not yet. The first vampire that came at her, lost his head, while another was thrown back enough feet for Danny to finish him off. She recognised some of them, but with that personal recognition came a new fired up hatred, and Carmilla fought harder until they all lay at her feet. The Dean stood by herself at the door, chanting something under her breath.

A hand was grabbing her wrist suddenly, pulling her around. Carmilla's first instinct was to protect herself, and her hands grabbed the arm and pulled the body over her shoulder. Before the body could hit the floor, however, it disappeared. It appeared once again in front of her, and Laura was laughing softly. "Sorry Carm." She said, and then her arms were around her tightly, hugging her hard. "Come back in one piece, okay?"

Carmilla smiled. "Don't worry cupcake, I'm not into that self-sacrificial hero bullshit. I'll be back."

Her eyes find Danny's, and the werewolf snapped her jaws as they locked eyes.

You better come back, she seemed to say.

"Don't worry clifford," Carmilla murmured as she unlatched the sword from it's sheath, and grabbed the hilt in a gloved hand. Her palm burned, and she felt it latch onto her energy. Fatigue set into her limbs immediately, but she powered on, towards her mother.

"Go Laura, kick some ass."

She didn't see the ghost's eyes soften as she watched her walk away. "You too Carm. You too."

The Dean laughed, the orange glow making her look insane as she watched the door almost pulse. "So finally, you made it."

The ancient vampire turned, watching as Carmilla walked towards her. She raised the sword. "Oh Mircalla." She ducked and weaved as Carmilla swung the sword first, barely missing the top of her head. "I didn't know that ending me meant so much to you." Her mother could see that with each movement, each use of the sword, Carmilla was being drained. Her eyes became sunken, as if she hadn't slept for weeks.

"I promised you," Carmilla grunted as she swung again. "That I will end your reign of terror."

But it was like the Dean didn't hear her. "You had so much potential. I had so much hope." She ducked another blow of the blade. "I thought you would be better than Matska, falling in love with the mutt, choosing loyalty towards them instead of your family."

Carmilla roared, and swung again. It struck into the wood of the floor of the museum. "You were never my family." The Dean smirked at her. Carmilla took the opportunity, and raised her foot, striking the Dean right in the stomach with her boot. The pain was enough for the Dean to look down, hands covering the spot where Carmilla had kicked her. In that moment Carmilla turned, grabbed the sword and swung it at her mother's head.

The Dean caught the blade with her hand. "Did you really think that I was that stupid, as to be distracted by such a predictable attack?"

Carmilla began to laugh. "No. I expected you to defend yourself. But you just grabbed the blade of the sword of Hastur, mother," she sneered. Her mother quickly, let go of the sword and shoved the blade away, but it was too late. The effects of the sword were already taking place. The Dean's movements slowed, and this time Carmilla took the opportunity seriously. She pulled the sword back, and speared the blade through her mother's chest, through her heart.

She dropped to her knees with exhaustion as the Dean fell, and the orange glow around her died into nothing. A white light ignited from the sword. Carmilla could hear Laura's voice, yelling her name. She could hear Danny howl. But the light was spreading, and she couldn't see. And it was pulling her in. She could hear Mattie's voice, and Will's. Elle's words echoed through her head. The light became blinding, and soon enough she could see nothing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny sat in the rubble of the old museum, among the broken display cases, and the battered walls. Her eyes were closed, ears picking up the smallest sounds, like the tiny mouse on the other side of the museum searching through the rubble. Three months ago, when the light had died down, the door that would have led to the underworld had been gone, and in its place was a large, round hole. The dean and Carmilla were gone with them.

The hole had been deep enough that scientists couldn't predict its length. The media had panicked over it for a month and a half, trying to figure out what caused it, or what it could mean.

Laura and Danny had searched by themselves too, but came up with nothing. Carmilla was gone.

As she had promised, after the Dean had been defeated and the threat to the underworld removed, Ereshkigal held up her end of the bargain, and girls thought to be dead for years started appearing throughout the weeks. Laura disappeared for a long week, suddenly and out of nowhere, and Danny had sat in her kitchen, on the window sill staring out into the street. One of Carmilla's book's lay at her feet.

A knock had sounded at her door, but she could barely be bothered to get up. "Danny," and her hears picked up the familiar voice. She was up on her feet within seconds, throwing open the door.

Laura stood outside, Lafontaine and Perry on either side and JP behind them. A scarf was wrapped around her neck, and she was wearing a winter coat despite the middle of summer. Her gloved hands held a box of chocolate chip cookies between them. There was a smile on her face, with that streak of sadness hidden behind her eyes.

It took her a while to learn how to be human again, and Danny couldn't count the amount of times that she had walked into a wall or door thinking she won't have to worry about opening it.

Danny sat now, with her feet hanging over the edge of the hole that Carmilla had left behind in her victory. "Don't worry, I'm not into that self-sacrificial hero shit," Danny remembered her saying. "You stupid idiot."

A smell found her suddenly. It had her up on her feet immediately. She knew that smell. Vampires, but only one smelled like that. Danny squinted her eyes and looked down into the darkness of the hole. For a long time, she paced the edges of the drop, trying to find a sign.

The half moon above the museum, shone through the missing sealing, into the hole.

That's when Danny saw it, peaking out from the darkness. A hand, pale and dirty but moving. Barely a few feet under.

Danny got down on her stomach and held out her hand, grabbing hold of the pale fingers that gripped onto the rock below.

Carmilla looked dead, for probably the first time in her immortal life, but when Danny pulled her up and lay her friend on the crumbling floor of the museum, she was smiling. She couldn't open her eyes, and her ears felt stuffed to the brim with cotton, but she heard Danny's voice all the same.

"Hey there, Clifford." She swallowed, then winced at the pain in her whole body. "How's our favourite ghost?"

Danny was crying and laughing at the same time as Carmilla rasped out those few words. "Definitely going to kick your ass for that self-sacrificial hero bullshit you pulled, fang face." She managed to chock out through her tears, and then lifted Carmilla into her arms.

She carried the light vampire out of the museum. Back to their house, where Laura was sitting with a plate of cookies and a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Back home, where they belonged. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there it is. It felt a little rushed to me, but I wanted to end it. Something I've never done with a fanfiction. THanks to all of you for reading, and hoped you liked it at least a little. It felt a little wierd, and a strange ending, but at least there is one. Right?
> 
> I'll leave my tumblr, which will hold future fics probably, if I find inspiration. 
> 
> tumblr purple-cake


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